The Magician's Book : : a Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia

Locations
Call Number: 823.912 Mi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	823.912 Mi	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Includes index.
A co-founder and staff writer for Salon.com explores the meaning and influence of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series while revealing how Lewis's troubled childhood, unconventional love life, and friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien affected his writing.

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Gorgeous and uncompromising submitted by larkspur on March 2, 2009, 1:40pm The author, Laura Miller, is a literary critic--as indeed C.S. Lewis himself was. She was given <a href="http://www.aadl.org/cat/seek/search/tlion%2C+the+witch/tlion+the+witch/1%2C7%2C26%2CB/frameset&FF=tlion+the+witch+and+the+wardrobe&6%2C%2C15">The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</a> by her favorite teacher at age 9, and the book opened up all but literally whole new worlds to her. Narnia transformed Miller, but as she grew up and gained critical faculties, she began to see the cracks in the construction--many more than some of us ever see--and felt betrayed. Still, she admits that by many reasonable criteria (including criteria suggested by Lewis in <a href="http://www.aadl.org/cat/seek/search/?searchtype=t&searcharg=experiment+in+criticism&searchscope=24&SORT=D&extended=0&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=tlion%2C+the+witch">An Experiment in Criticism</a>) <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</a> will always be the best book Miller has ever read. <i>The Magician's Book</a> is her exploration of all these ideas: child-like wonder, bitter disillusionment, and enduring love--for literature. It's a gorgeous book. I disagree with Miller sometimes, am baffled by her at others, but I always respect her for her love of stories and story-telling.